


Said Too Little

by moovelope



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Miscommunication, love bug au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 03:58:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13942101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moovelope/pseuds/moovelope
Summary: Not like this, he thinks irrationally, tension working its way up his spine as he waits for Lance to move. There’s a few heavy seconds of silence as they look at each other.And then the tension drops. Lance blinks and looks away, rubbing at the back of his neck.“Ah, something got me anyway. Good thing it wasn’t one of those Love Bugs, huh?” he says and pulls his helmet back on.Companion piece toSaid Too Much.





	Said Too Little

It’s late on whatever alien world they’re on now, the sun already set on the large blue fields of grass that surround the city. Soft lamplight glows above the dirt path that Keith and Lance make their way down; both dressed in their full Paladin uniforms.

“A parade, Keith, they’re going to throw a parade,” Lance rambles excitedly, walking backwards along the path towards the cottages that the local people had lent out to the team. Keith scoffs.

“After you taught them what a parade was. And this will be the third in two weeks, what the hell is with you and parades?” he asks. The less pageantry and celebration meant the faster they were off any particular planet on the newest round of coalition building. This tour was completely unnecessary. Even though Keith had liked the down time initially, he’s ready for it to be over. Why did they have to personally visit all of the civilizations that have joined the coalition recently? They were already on board, what was the point other than making them feel special?

“Come on Keith, it’s fun. And it gets everyone smiling. They can’t spend all of their time thinking about the war,” Lance says with an air of teasing. But after several years in space with the other man, Keith knows when Lance is serious about something. He stops to rethink.

“It’s not your job to save the universe _and_ keep everyone happy, Lance,” Keith says after a moment. Lance shrugs.

“Who says those two things don’t go hand in hand?” he sighs and fogs up the interior of his visor. “God, I wish we allowed to take our helmets off, though. I’m getting claustrophobic in here.”

Keith nudges him with his shoulder, throwing Lance a bit off balance. “You know _why_ , so stop whining. Do you want to end up like Hunk did a few months ago?”

“The locals said that there are a _few_ Altreezen Stingers here! And that it’s not even the season you see them the most! There’s like, a 10% chance that one will sting me and I’ll end up—”

“End up just like Hunk, falling in love with a cat because it was the first thing he saw and then him being _inconsolable_ when we had to leave it behind,” Keith reminds him, smiling as Lance chuckles at the memory.

Even though they barely did anything today, just attended meetings and celebrations, Keith can feel a slow and easy exhaustion in his bones. Maybe it’s the warm, orangish glow from the lamp lights on their organic looking stalks. Or how everything else on the planet is a soothing, deep blue, gently lit by the planet’s two moons. He feels like he’s underwater, with the color and the sluggishness of his mind. It’s probably because of that he doesn’t notice Lance taking off his helmet.

“Ah, that feels good. Just needed a bit of a breeze,” Lance sighs, running his hand through his short hair, letting the wind ruffle it as he lets go. Keith rolls his eyes and decides to let Lance take his chances. He’d have the last laugh if Lance got stung looking at a frog, or one of the locals or-

There’s a soft buzzing in the air, not the sound coming from the soft hum of the lights above their heads. Keith can barely hear it, and he knows his hearing is better than average. He flicks his eyes over to Lance, who catches the look and smiles back.

And that’s when Keith sees it.

A bug, shaped like a mosquito but around the size of Keith’s fist with yellow wings as fast as a hummingbird’s, is hovering behind Lance’s right ear. It looks just like what got Hunk those few months ago.

“La—” is all Keith gets out before the bug disappears from view and Lance flinches, jerking a hand to the back of his neck.

Keith stands frozen, realization only hitting him as Lance looks up, eyes widening and dark. This time there’s no cat, no random alien around that will catch Lance’s attention. There’s only Keith with his heart trapped in his throat, his mind scrambling.

 _Not like this_ , he thinks irrationally, tension working its way up his spine as he waits for Lance to move. There’s a few heavy seconds of silence as they look at each other.

And then the tension drops. Lance blinks and looks away, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Ah, something got me anyway. Good thing it wasn’t one of those Love Bugs, huh?” he says and pulls his helmet back on. He continues down the path as Keith stands frozen in disbelief.

That was definitely an Altreezen Stinger. Definitely. Unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, tired as he was. But-

“Are you coming?” Lance calls from down the path. Keith jerks into motion following him.

“Yeah, wait a tick,” he mutters, stumbling after him.

***

“So...you know those Altreezen Stingers?” Keith starts, sitting backwards on his chair in Pidge’s workshop. She drops her tools down with a clank.

“Twenty minutes of staring at me working in silence and that’s what you open with?” she asks giving him an unamused look.

Keith shrugs, trying to appear nonchalant. “I was just thinking, they were on the last planet we were on—”

“Yes Keith, I know. I was there. It was yesterday,” she says, picking up a small tube that turned into a mini blow torch. She motions for him to continue as she powers it up. Keith runs a frustrated hand through his hair.

“Alright, alright. I just was thinking. Could someone be stung and have no reaction? Like, at all?”

Pidge looks up at him over her safety glasses. “Why, did you get stung by something? Is this sort of like poison ivy, you walk through some weird looking leaves and then feel itchy and then you immediately think it’s a reaction?”

He tilts his head, considering. “Personal experience?”

She frowns. “Too many times to count. On the poison ivy front, it takes a few hours for it to show up, not a couple of minutes. I spent a lot of time panicking on camping trips for nothing.” Keith snorts and Pidge giggles as well. She sets aside the blow torch to grab for a measuring tape.

“But for the bugs...a, uh, local mentioned it, that they heard about someone getting stung and them having no reaction,” Keith lies, hoping Pidge doesn’t dig any deeper.

Pidge shrugs, trading her measuring tape for a pen, markings spots on where she was working. “Could be a whole bunch of different things. Maybe the alien that was stung had some natural immunity. Most of the planets that have them naturally have a higher resistance than us, since we never grew up with it. Or maybe it just doesn’t work every time. Or maybe the local who told you was just messing with you,” she rambles. Keith sighs.

“Thanks for the suggestions,” he says, settling back into his seat and pulling out his data pad to play with. Pidge puts down her pen.

“It’s not anything important, right?”

He waves her off. “No, nothing important. Don’t worry about it.”

She nods and quickly returns to her work as the two settle into a comfortable silence.

***

There’s a weight hanging over Keith’s head, like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something’s coming, he knows that much. He can feel it buzzing under his skin, an anxious knot in his stomach. Except… Lance keeps acting normal, absolutely one hundred percent normal.

Well, Lance’s version of normal anyway.

So maybe he found a ukulele (or the alien version of one) on one of the planets they stopped off at. And maybe he’s been plucking at it non-stop in the common area as Keith sits and reads and maybe Keith doesn’t just up and leave because he likes spending time with Lance even when he’s being annoying.

“Having fun over there?” Keith asks as he presses on his data pad to skip to the next page. It’s one of Altea’s prime examples of classic literature, recommended by Allura. It’s a nice balance of action, intrigue and romance, and Keith is enjoying it so far.

Lance continues to pluck at the instrument, lying on the cushions of the couch and feet over the back. He plays a few chords as his fingers seem to adjust to the strings. Slowly Keith realizes that the notes aren’t random anymore, that Lance is plucking out a song.

“Finally got a handle on the notes,” he says proudly, closing his eyes as he rests the ukulele on his chest, caressing the strings without looking down. Keith smiles, putting his data pad aside to watch Lance.

“Do you have a certain song stuck in your head?” Keith asks. Lance grins up at the ceiling.

“You asking me to sing?” he asks without cracking open his eyes.

“Only if you don’t suck,” Keith replies. Lance just smirks. It’s common knowledge that Lance has a nice voice with how often he sings in the communal showers. He begins to hum and Keith leans back into the sofa, soft and settled. Lance sits up and looks over to Keith, a challenge in his eyes.

“Since you asked so nicely,” Lance says, beginning to strum once more. Lance changes up his fingers on the instrument, picks out notes that collide gently in the air. He starts to sing and it’s one that Keith doesn’t recognize, but enjoys how it sounds in Lance’s voice.

“ _Can you hear me, I’m talking to you_ ,” he starts and Keith closes his eyes, letting himself enjoy the moment as Lance continues to sing. He’s pulled out of his thoughts when Lance suddenly falls silent, stopping in the middle of a line. Keith opens his eyes to look over at him, only to find that Lance looks mortified.

“What’s up, did you forget the rest?” Keith asks, trying to remember where Lance cut off. He wishes he knew the song so he could remind Lance of the lyrics. He thinks the last bit was something about life being hard?

“No, no I uh. Um, my voice is starting to bother me, gonna grab a glass of water,” he says, voice tight. He looks frustrated as he drops the instrument on the couch and makes a quick exit towards the kitchen. It’s weird, but Keith lets it go, picking up his data pad again and waits for Lance to come back.

Except he doesn’t come back.

***

That other shoe that Keith was worried about? It finally drops when he and Lance are sparring. Their training used to be filled with competition, the two of them constantly butting heads until the training droids kicked them both out of the ring. After a few years and a lot of trial and error they’ve learned each other’s boundaries, when to call it quits, when to push each other harder. Now they have it down to a fine art.

Which is why it’s so confusing that Lance is messing up every single drill today.

“Are you sure—”

“Yes, I want to keep going,” Lance snaps, though there’s no real heat behind it. Keith shrugs mid-swing, twisting around to try and connect his staff with Lance’s head. Luckily he ducks like he’s supposed to, instead of the first time around when it struck home. Keith swiftly dodges a swipe from Lance, a move so practiced it feels like dancing. It’s a push and pull between them, they know each other’s pattern so well.

Keith charges forward, readying himself for when Lance will dodge back. He’ll probably duck down to make a shot for Keith’s legs, or roll and come up behind him-

But Lance _doesn’t_ move. He stays rooted in the spot like he’s lost in thought. Keith pulls his staff up so he doesn’t impale Lance, but he still ends up plowing into him. They both land on the floor with Keith half on top of Lance’s chest. Lance’s face scrunches up in pain, eyes pulled tight.

“Lance, are you alrig—” Keith starts, but the words get caught in his throat. Lance opens his eyes and for a second he just looks winded, but then he sees Keith. He stares up at him like he’s seeing Keith for the first time and it’s awe-inspiring. He runs his eyes around Keith’s face, eyes lingering near Keith’s mouth, a foot and a half away after their tumble. He can hear Lance swallow.

And Keith...Keith isn’t an _idiot_. He can feel the interest in Lance’s gaze, he knows the thoughts behind it. It’s _obvious_ , and Keith’s breath is stolen for a moment as he registers it. He must have made some noise in his surprise because suddenly Lance blinks, seeming to come back to himself. Keith watches as a flush crawls over his skin, down his neck and across his cheeks. Lance pushes him over and off of him, rolling over to quickly stand.

“Sorry for being a total space cadet- I mean like- spacey not like an actual space cadet because I guess that’s technically what we were at the Garrison? Sorry for being out of it, I think I need to take a nap so if you’ll just excuse me,” he says in one long rush and makes a hasty retreat.

Keith sits on the floor and stares after him. It takes a while for his brain to come back online. He tries to focus on the panicked look on Lance’s face instead of the way it felt to have Lance’s gaze linger on his lips.

He forces himself to think. What _was_ that? It seemed like Lance didn’t know what he was doing, that he didn’t have control over some of the stuff he was saying, or the way he reacted to things. Almost like he did things without realizing and then was pulled up short when reality crept in.

Disappointment floods Keith’s chest as he flops back on the floor.

So Lance _was_ stung by one of those stupid bugs. He’s just been trying to hide it. Maybe he had a delayed reaction to the sting, so that’s why it was only cropping up now. But why not tell everyone? Why try to pretend that whatever weird stuff was going on wasn’t happening?

Keith sits up and rubs at his face, wishing things were different.

***

Hunk’s spell had lasted a week, from what Keith can remember. It wasn’t too bad in the beginning, spiked near the middle of the week and then slowly died down. He cried nearly the entire time, heartbroken that the team didn’t take the cat with them on the castle as they traveled to their next location. The cat had an owner, they couldn’t steal her, no Hunk you can’t try to smuggle the cat on board-

Lance spent most of the week with him, bringing snacks and funny movies, trying to cheer him up. They’d all laughed about it afterwards, and Hunk said that he was glad he got to at least spend some good time with his bud.

But now it’s the fourth day since Lance was stung, and Keith is on high alert. He’s got one ear out for Lance in case his ability to fight against the stupid mosquito toxins has failed him. Keith doesn’t want to let Lance do anything that he might...later regret or be embarrassed about. It’s the least he can do.

Since he has his ear out and he’s so focused on trying to catch Lance’s voice, it’s no wonder that he overhears a bit of conversation from the dining hall. Even with the door still closed, he can hear Lance and Hunk whispering over their lunch.

“-getting worse, I don’t even know anymore,” Lance says sounding utterly defeated.

“I keep telling you that you should—”

“No, stop right there, I don’t want to hear it,” Lance cuts him off. “There wouldn’t be a _point_. Hopefully whatever this-this...phase is will fade and I’ll get a handle on things.”

“Hey, Lance, cheer up, how about I make you some of that fried stuff you like?”

There’s a muffled response, like Lance has his head stuffed into his jacket. Hunk laughs.

Keith decides it’s probably safe enough now to go and get his food, especially if Hunk was making something special. He pauses at the door as the two men inside jump, whipping their heads around to look at him.

“Uh, hey?” he greets them, wishing that the air in the room didn’t feel so awkward. He suddenly realizes that maybe the two of them were talking about him, though he’s not sure how. 

Lance stares at him, and yeah, the bug bite is still messing with him because his ears start to flush a deeper color and he won’t stop _looking_ at Keith. Hunk snaps his fingers and both Keith and Lance look to him. Keith is glad for the distraction; he can’t help but latch onto the fond look Lance gave him. He can’t allow himself to remember that look if it’s only going to be gone by the end of the week.

“Hey Keith, you hungry? I was just about to make something for Lance,” Hunk says, pointing a thumb over his shoulder towards the kitchen. Keith nods.

“Yeah, sure,” he says. He looks down to Lance who watches Hunk as he leaves, looking a bit panicked. Keith wonders if he should sit next to Lance or not. He usually does, so not doing so would be weird and make it obvious he knows somethings up. But...he doesn’t want to make Lance uncomfortable by being too close to him. Obviously the whole thing is freaking him out. Keith takes a hesitant seat next to Lance, better to let Lance decide how he wants to figure things out than to throw a wrench into the works. Lance groans a bit and plops his head down into the table.

“You doing alright?” Keith asks before he can stop himself. Lance huffs out a laugh into his arms.

“Doin’ peachy,” he mutters, voice muffled. Keith slinks down into his own chair, silently wishing that Lance wouldn’t sound so miserable over the whole situation. It made it loud and clear: he might be interested in Keith _now_ because of the bug, but he didn’t want to be.

The two of them sit in silence until Hunk comes back with the food.

***

The week is nearly up and Keith is so glad for it. Lance has just avoided him the last few days, skipping out on their training and not going planet side at the latest coalition meeting. He tells Keith that he has a stomach bug or something, or that he stayed up too late playing games. Hunk gives Keith an apologetic look every now and again at the meeting when he catches Keith looking at Lance’s empty seat.

And Keith doesn’t blame Lance in the slightest. He can’t imagine getting stung and being forced to be interested in someone he isn’t normally into. And being aware of it! But the past week has really brought down his mood; he misses the odd hours he spends with Lance, the time he uses to relax. So he joins Hunk and Lance in the common area against his better judgement, even though Lance stiffens against Hunk’s shoulder as Keith walks in.

Keith sits on the opposite couch and fishes his data pad out of his pocket to read. He picks up where he left off, and tries to let the story distract him from the tight set of Lance’s shoulders. It actually works for a few minutes until Pidge wanders in as well, goggles with magnifying glasses attached to the lenses pushed up into her hair.

“Hunk, have you seen my nano-clips? I thought I left them in Green’s hangar but- oh, Keith!” she pauses halfway through her thought, eyes lighting up.

“Yeah, me,” he replies, a touch sarcastic. Lance snorts and Keith counts it as a small victory.

“Shut your face,” Pidge shoots back easily. “I got to thinking about your question with the Altreezen Stinger from a week ago.”

Across from Keith, Lance shoots straight up in his seat to stare at Pidge. Oh no.

“No, Pidge it’s alright, it was a stupid question—”

She waves him off, “No its fine, you and Lance ask stupid questions all the time. But I thought of another reason why someone wouldn’t have a reaction after being bitten.”

Keith’s heart starts pounding in his chest and he’s not sure why. Couldn’t Pidge read the tension in the room? Or was he just imagining it?

“It’s because they were in love with that person to begin with.”

Keith’s heart stops.

“What?” he asks, voice faint.

“They wouldn’t have an obvious reaction because they already _felt_ that way about the person, so they wouldn’t act any differently. Or at least, that’s another idea. We have no way of knowing if that’s how it would actually work.”

Keith can’t help it; he immediately looks from Pidge to Lance, which turns out to be a huge mistake. Lance is already looking at him, eyes wide and frantic. His breath catches when he sees Keith look at him, like Keith has just confirmed his fears. Lance bolts up next to Hunk and wordlessly heads out of the room, not even thinking of a stupid excuse.

“Lance, wait—” Keith starts.

“Oh no, that’s what that was—” Hunk says in a horrified whisper.

“Did I say something wrong?” Pidge asks, looking around the room absolutely confused.

Keith ignores her and jumps from his seat to follow Lance. It doesn’t take long to catch up with him, mostly because Lance didn’t make it too far before he stopped in the middle of the hall.

“So you knew?” Lance asks, still facing away from Keith. There’s a touch of unbelieving laughter to his voice.

“I saw the thing bite you and—”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Lance asks, whipping around to face Keith. “[I could have](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13942176)\- The opportunities I missed—” He cuts himself off with a shake of his head.

Keith fumbles for words, not sure what he’s supposed to say. “I-I didn’t know that it did anything to you until a few days later. That’s why I asked Pidge before that—”

Lance laughs, throwing his hands up in the air. “Well now you know! Now I know why I haven’t been able to keep my head straight these last few days. It felt like every thought I’ve had about you for months, maybe even years was just gonna come flying out of my mouth at any second. Or apparently it _feels_ like that because I can’t get a handle on myself even now,” he says, pulling his hands back down with a snap.

“Now I know what?” Keith asks, because that’s the part that he’s latched onto, because he still can’t believe what Pidge said, still can’t find it in him to think that Lance would-

“Isn’t it super obvious? Weren’t you listening to Pidge? Didn’t you see me trying to hide it all this week and me not understanding why I couldn’t? Come on Keith, I know you’re smarter than that,” Lance mocks him. Keith can see that Lance is trying to push him, trying to egg him on into a screaming match.

He’s scared; Keith can see it in his clenched fists and tight shoulders. He’s scared of Keith’s reaction.

Keith takes a step towards him; he can’t stand Lance looking this distressed. Lance freezes, looking like he’s ready for a fight. It hurts, Keith doesn’t know what he’s done to make Lance think that would be his reaction and he absolutely hates it.

Lance looks even more scared as Keith reaches for him before he tugs him in for a hug. Keith holds him tightly to his chest, his face tucked into the slope of Lance’s shoulder.

“Keith I am...very confused,” Lance settles on, arms wrapping up to return the hug anyway. He relaxes, a sigh escaping him as he rests the side of his head against Keith’s.

“Sorry,” Keith mutters into Lance’s jacket.

“About what? Confusing me? Or the hug? Don’t apologize about the hug,” he says, his voice tilting into a plea at the end.

And Keith isn’t sure what he’s apologizing for until the words are coming out of his mouth, head drawing away from Lance’s shoulder to look him in the eye. “I’m sorry for waiting so long.”

Lance’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion, “I-it’s alright, I mean. I kinda wish I knew that I had been stung but no big deal—”

“No that’s not- that’s…” Keith frowns, he can’t put his thoughts into words, can’t properly explain the pounding in his chest. So he does the next best thing.

It only takes a tilt of his head to reach Lance, to gently press their lips together. It’s not a lot, not enough, but Keith pulls away before he gets too far. It’s worth it, to see Lance’s stunned expression, red crawling up his neck and across his cheeks.

It’s _definitely_ worth it when Lance’s hands whip up to grab the back of his neck, and suddenly Keith is being kissed within an inch of his life. He nearly loses his footing with the force, combined with his legs feeling like they’re going to give out on him. Lance kisses like he’s making up for lost time, like he’s not sure if he’s got any left and Keith loses his breath at the sensation. Keith is backed up into a wall, and honestly he’s grateful because now he’s got something to lean against as Lance pulls away and starts peppering his face and neck with quick kisses.

“Oh. My. God,” Lance exhales between each one. Keith grabs on to the back of Lance’s shirt to keep himself upright.

Lance takes a moment to pull back to look at Keith, eyes wide, looking like he was just hit by a hurricane. His hair is standing up on one end from where Keith impulsively ran his hand through it. He looks ridiculous.

Keith loves it.

He’s not sure which one of them starts it, but in the blink of an eye they devolve into laughter, Keith giggling into Lance’s shoulder and Lance snorting. It’s too much all at once, too many positive emotions bursting out of his chest.

“We’re so stupid,” Keith mutters, voice warm with affection. Lance huffs.

“Speak for yourself,” he says. Keith pushes him a bit, and Lance mostly dodges, grabbing Keith’s arm to steady himself. With another laugh he steals a breathless kiss from Lance’s lips. “Wait ‘til I tell Hunk he was right.”

“Can you wait to tell Hunk?” Keith asks without thinking.

“Why, did you have any other plans for right now?” Lance asks with a playful grin across his lips, hands shifting to rest on Keith’s hips. Keith swallows around a suddenly dry throat.

“I have a few ideas, yeah,” he says faintly, the breath knocked out of him. Lance grabs his hand and gently tugs.

“Well, lead the way then, samurai,” he says, “We’ve got a lot to catch up on.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes you get almost done with planning out one story when a completely different way it could have gone strikes you and then you have to sit and ask yourself. Do I really need to write an AU for a story I haven't even finished writing yet? 
> 
> The answer is yes. Absolutely.


End file.
